RCGRS 2017 Tour: Lone Pine & Western Railroad

The third stop on my tour was the Lone Pine & Western Railroad in Milwaukie. This railroad was featured in an issue of Garden Railways Magazine three years ago and for good reason—it is an outstanding example of garden railroading and landscape design. It provides inspiration for what might be possible.

The theme is a mountain branch line providing service to a newly opened mine in the late 1800s. It is a single track line with multiple sidings and there are loops at both ends so you can run a single train continuously, but this looks like it would be much more fun to have multiple trains running simultaneously so you make use of all those sidings. The line starts in a low flat area then winds along a creek upstream toward the mountain peak, going through seven tunnels along the way. And it maintains a 1% grade the entire way. Truly an amazing railroad!

Where's the train? Even with no train in sight, this picture shows a beautifully executed rock garden. And tags identifying plant species were kindly provided throughout. In retrospect I wish I had taken more close-up pictures of the plants.

Lone Pine Yard is at the lowest point on the railroad, and includes an engine barn, turntable, coaling tower and multiple tracks for rolling stock.

Close up of the coaling tower.

Two trains pass each other at Cattle Flats, with a third train coming up quickly behind.

Saw this flat car at Halfway Junction, loaded with lumber headed up to the mine.

One of the portals at Summit Tunnel. Absolutely beautiful.

Train on the siding heading out of Summit Depot.

And here is the view looking the other direction, as the line heads toward Windy Ridge Tunnel #2.

This was probably my favorite spot, a gorgeous canyon just past Windy Ridge Tunnel #2. Everything about this spot is perfect, and represents an aesthetic I would love to recreate for my train some day. Note the siding heading off to the right here, which heads across a bridge into a storage shed (also known as the Windy Ridge Yards).

And finally, the Lucky Penny Mine works at the summit.

This track diagram on the side of the storage shed helped put the whole layout in context. And helped me find all seven of the tunnels.

The work table. Battery packs, remote controllers, and...train hats, of course! I saw he's a big fan of AirWire, which is likely the direction I'm headed for my first RC battery conversion.

A view inside the storage shed, mostly empty as so many trains were out riding the rails.